Afternoon Roundup: GOP "Shirk[ing] Responsibility" Edition

Not content to trash a sequester mechanism House Republicans themselves voted for, Congressional Republicans are now taking their obstruction a step further, with their ludicrous attempts to pin the pending “fiscal cliff” squarely on Democrats, even as they refuse to yield an inch in their drive to protect tax cuts for the wealthy at all costs.

One look at the news this afternoon shows who is to blame for the impending fiscal crisis, no matter the rhetorical knots Republicans are tying themselves into:

“Long-time Congress watchers Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann, out earlier this year with a book that pins congressional gridlock on the GOP, attended the House Democratic Caucus meeting on Wednesday and insisted that despite their standing with party leaders, they were not advocating that Americans vote for the Party of Andrew Jackson.”

“‘We're not saying we've got one terrific party and one awful party. ... but you've got one party that's more oriented toward solving problems and another that has gone a little bit astray,’ Ornstein said.”

“‘Don't elect, we say, people who claim to be non-politicians and willing to stand on principles and never compromise. That is an ingredient for absolute gridlock. You have got to think more broadly about the system,’ Mann said.”

People who are never willing to compromise no matter the economic consequences?

“…And now that Democrats are forcing Republicans to choose between the hostage and their anti-tax pledges, Republicans are trying to shirk responsibility for the crisis altogether.”

Shirking responsibility for a crisis Republicans themselves created? Now that takes chutzpah.

Just in case our Republican friends need a history lesson, they should be careful who they blame for the sequester, as Politico points out in this article from last August:

“Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who played a central role in crafting the final compromise with Vice President Joe Biden, was more upbeat.”

“’It may have been messy. It might have appeared to some like their government wasn’t working,’ McConnell told fellow senators minutes before the vote. ‘But, in fact, the opposite was true. The push and pull Americans saw in Washington these past few weeks was not gridlock. It was the will of the people working itself out in a political system that was never meant to be pretty. … It was a debate that Washington needed to have.’”

“McConnell, the chief Republican architect of the compromise, has been adamant that no tax increases will come out of the joint committee.”